In this urgently relevant* collection featuring the landmark essay The Case for Reparations
the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me reflects on race Barack
Obama's presidency and its jarring aftermath*-including the election of Donald Trump. New York
Times Bestseller • Finalist for the PEN Jean Stein Book Award the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York
Times • USA Today • Time • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Essence • O: The Oprah
Magazine • The Week • Kirkus Reviews *Kirkus Reviews (starred review) We were eight years in
power was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in
multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. In this
sweeping collection of new and selected essays Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of
that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a
vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America's first white
president. But the story of these present-day eight years is not just about presidential
politics. This book also examines the new voices ideas and movements for justice that emerged
over this period-and the effects of the persistent haunting shadow of our nation's old and
unreconciled history. Coates powerfully examines the events of the Obama era from his intimate
and revealing perspective-the point of view of a young writer who begins the journey in an
unemployment office in Harlem and ends it in the Oval Office interviewing a president. We Were
Eight Years in Power features Coates's iconic essays first published in The Atlantic including
Fear of a Black President The Case for Reparations and The Black Family in the Age of Mass
Incarceration along with eight fresh essays that revisit each year of the Obama administration
through Coates's own experiences observations and intellectual development capped by a
bracingly original assessment of the election that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama
era. We Were Eight Years in Power is a vital account of modern America from one of the
definitive voices of this historic moment.
